Why Independent Research on Digital Asset Frameworks Cannot Wait

By Yulia Leshchenko, Founder and Research Director, IRAIET

When I established IRAIET, the question I heard most often was: why now?

The answer is in the gap.

Regulatory frameworks for digital assets, AI governance, and tokenized real-world assets are being written right now — in legislative sessions, in regulatory guidance documents, in court decisions that establish precedent by necessity because legislation has not yet caught up. The window in which research can meaningfully inform policy — rather than document it after the fact — is open. But it will not stay open indefinitely.

I have spent 16 years as an IP attorney and advisor working at the intersection of law and technology. What I have observed consistently is that the most consequential legal frameworks are shaped during periods of ambiguity — before the standards calcify. This is that period for digital assets, AI governance, and the legal structures of the decentralized economy.

IRAIET's research agenda is built around three convictions:

• Interdisciplinary work produces better frameworks. The questions at the intersection of IP law, blockchain systems, financial regulation, and AI governance cannot be answered from within a single discipline. They require the kind of collaborative research that crosses institutional and professional boundaries.

• Independent research matters for policy quality. Regulatory capture is a documented risk in technology governance. Independent organizations that produce credible, non-commercial research create an important counterweight — and provide policymakers with analysis that is not shaped by industry interest.

• Practical frameworks require practitioner input. Academic research and regulatory guidance both benefit from the perspective of practitioners who have encountered the limitations of existing frameworks in real cases. That practitioner perspective is part of what IRAIET brings to its research.
  

I established this organization because the work needs to be done — and because the moment to do it is now.

I welcome researchers, legal professionals, policymakers, and practitioners who share this view to connect and explore collaboration.